An exploration and examination of reflective teaching practice among teachers of Islamic education in Kuwaiti middle schools

The present study was designed to explore and examine the degree of availability and comprehension toward the reflective teaching approach of teachers of Islamic education in Kuwaiti middle schools. I investigated the degree to which the teachers of Islamic education reflected upon their work and benefitted from the reflection process. Also, the study addressed the opinions of the Islamic education Ministry of Education superintendents by interviewing them about the usage of the reflective teaching practice based on their evaluation of the teachers of Islamic education.;Data were gathered from (a) teachers of Islamic education in the middle Kuwaiti schools and (b) Ministry of Education superintendents of Islamic education in Kuwait. The teachers of Islamic education responded to a self-administrated questionnaire. Five Superintendents of Islamic education were interviewed to identify their actual roles toward the reflective teaching practice.;Percentage, means, and standard deviations were computed for teachers of Islamic education responses for all questions pertaining to demographic data. A t-test was computed to test the null form hypotheses one--five. A one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was utilized to test hypothesis six concerning the five educational regions in Kuwait.;The findings from the study indicated most teachers of Islamic education in Kuwait were familiar with and practiced reflective teaching. Teachers seemed to have a clear idea of what benefits they might get by applying the reflective teaching. Yet there seemed to be some difficulties such as time and finishing the curriculum on time. Furthermore, Ministry of Education superintendents of Islamic education clarified their roles of encouraging the reflective teaching practice and helping teachers to solve teachers' problems.;Recommendations were made from this study for more emphasis on the reflective teaching as an important practice for teachers professional development. Reflective teaching conferences and literature materials should be available to the teachers and superintendents as sources for knowing the latest educational developments. Other recommendation were made for future research in other Gulf countries and other school subjects.